simply was not working for the majority of households, and especially for those where no male head of household existed. suffragists involved with the national women's party also criticized the u.s. entry into world war i. allender used the war to emphasize three factors. war leaves women and children vulnerable, women cannot vote for war but must abide by the consequences of those men who do vote, and women are unprotected under democracy. again, allender depicted these factors through her images of vulnerable mothers and their children. in this cartoon, captioned "war, the woman dies 1,000 death." the hooded skeletons are labelled poverty, sorrow, starvation, greed, and dishonor. in the inset hooded skeleton stands with the wreath of glory over fallen soldiers.

in her see america first cover, she highlights class disparity by showing a group of middle class women attending a benefit for war victims while an impoverished mother with her children watches from afar. allender was not afraid to fault the class in which she lived for its ignorance or the despair endured by their servants. nor was she afraid to show the violence that some men used against suffragists. this cartoon from 1917 shows a sailor attacking a picketing suffragist while the "good-natured police" watches it all and does nothing. lisa kathleen will be focusing on the banners and protests, so i'll only share a couple slides of protests and pickets to demonstrate that humor that inez haynes irwin described about allender.

in this one allender draws a line of picketers outside the district jail with the caption on the original drawing "why pay rent." police began arresting suffragists that summer and charging them with obstruction of traffic. on june 27th, first six women served three days in the district jail. but within one month the penalty for protestors had been seriously upgraded to six months in a work house in suburban virginia. the lack of democracy in the u.s. was a regular theme for allender. we saw it on the protest sign of the suffragists being beaten by the sailor, and here where liberty directs the protestors to clear the way as men fight in the war abroad to secure democracy. allender used a common image of the v for victory symbol used to encourage work in munitions factories and gave it her own twist.

may we not suggest victory? and another connection to jailed women with an inset poster that reads "mr. president, what will you do for women suffrage?" allender's covers challenged the prevailing notions about male protection and security, but she did so within the racial constraints of the progressive era. her covers show white reformers, white workers, white children, and the men with whom they resist such as the police officers and sailors are white. the railroad porter in this cover is not. the suffrage movement was plagued by racial animosity and prejudices like all elements of society in this era. allender did not give attention to the plight of african-american women who feared for their lives because of their race, nor did she highlight the injustices endured by american indian women forced to live on reserves or asian

women kept from reuniting with their husbands because of immigration restrictions. instead, she drew scenes of white women enduring, achieving, reeducating and celebrating. the bartender, a voter, serves up a national amendment drink to women invited to try our special susan b. anthony and congressional aide. and on february 20th, 1920, allender drew a woman trying to train the politicos new tricks with her votes. little has been written about allender in a start maybe to assess her as a suffragist historian who understood the important contribution her work made to the cause. like many women immersed in suffrage, she recognized that her work meant something, and she donated her drawings to the congressional library.

in 1917, when suffragists were being imprisoned, allender described these women in an article for the suffragist as "calm, deliberate, calculating, college-bred women who understand the modern value of publicity." i argue that she could have been describing herself. thank you. [ applause ] >> having a fast discussion to figure out if the technology will work for us. i also would like to thank paige and elizabeth and jennifer and the wonderful staff at the archives for inviting us here. i love banners. i have to say. i am -- obviously i work at a

museum, so i spend my life with material culture. and it's hard to describe how wonderful a banner is. the look of it, the weight of it, the feel of it, the texture of it. the only thing we can't do in a museum is wave it in the breeze. that would be a very bad thing from a museum point of view. but what we try to do is to make you think of what it would look like in that fashion. and why don't i try to move my slide. the idea of a banner is so engrained i think at this point with our visualization of the suffrage movement. we picture the parades. we picture the pickets. and we picture the pictures they drew themselves, in which they are portrayed as heroic women holding a banner. this is obviously the traditional votes for women

banner, not really a one used primarily by the national women's party. but it is the one that people were used to by the time the woman's party began to make banners their own. and they did take a very old medium, banners have been around since the 13th century. they've began as a way to show heraldic devices. they're something you carry into battle so that you can find your troop, your king, your color. you rally around it. it motions you across the field of battle. it hangs in the hall of your castle keep and manor to tell you who are your people and what your cause is. they're taken forward by trade union groups, especially british trade union groups who make -- copy this and make banners to call their own to identify their associations. and they become a very active

part of the american political process. banners really come into their own in the 1860s campaigns when torchlight parades took over america. and lincoln processions went through different cities. some of them still exist. most of them with simple slogans. lincoln and hamlen are cause for justice will prevail in november is one of my favorites that we've had on exhibit lately. but they're all reasonably sizeable. but with a simple slogan that can come forward, you're going to see it in motion, you're going to see it for a short spurt of time as it moves past you. and that's how women's suffrage banners seemed to begin. they're used -- obviously this is the program for the suffrage procession that alice paul put together in washington, d.c.

the march 1913 procession held the day before woodrow wilson's inauguration. woodrow wilson the story always goes arrived at the train station, wondered where the crowds were, and he was told they were on the avenue, meaning pennsylvania avenue, watching the women. because they were parading in a parade that ended up in a little bit of a riot because of -- i'm sorry. a little bit of a riot. because the sight of women parading with banners was a little bit unusual. women have made these banners through time but they're not necessarily the people who were carrying them. while beautiful it was a little daunting for many people. banners continue to be used by the party, though. just like other banners through time, they show identity, they show inspiration, they're used

as calls for action, and they convey messages. and i'd like to show you some examples of banners that are in the sewall-belmont house of collection which are on display which i actively encourage you to go and see. it's had a wonderful transformation. it has beautiful exhibits. some of which are not on exhibit at the moment, but hopefully we'll rotate through some time or we can show them to you this way. a lot of them are online. you can look at them there. this is an allender cartoon actually showing some of the most typical banners. the two that come constantly, kind of the backbone of the pickets and the movement are "mr. president, how long must women wait for liberty? and mr. president, what will you do for women's suffrage?" but banners as i said still show your identity in terms of your profession, be it actress or dentist.

so as you're parading you will have your corps of people marching under your banner. your city or state. your alma mater. if your section of the parade is your university. the party other party to which you may belong, be it the democratic or the progressive party. and most importantly, the party to which you belong for suffrage. and this is the national women's party tricolor, although this is from our collection and i'm afraid it's faded a little bit so that purple has become a sort of blue. but it should be the color of kyle's dress. [ laughter ] eggplant. purple, white, and gold. the national women's party colors. and this tricolor is used along with all of these other banners

in deliberate combinations of words and color and pageantry that create the women's suffrage -- the physical part of the women's suffrage movement and the picketing part of the women's suffrage movement. and it backs up the words, and it backs up the lobbying. and it creates a visual encounter for the public, and a spectacle for the press, and a way of lobbying the people in the white house and the people in the capital with public behind them in a way that is hard to be done through words and petitions alone. and where the allender cartoons and the suffragists are reaching into the party to keep them informed, the banners are a way of public outreach to find new members to join the party.

and this is a corps of women with the tricolor leaving the headquarters which at the time was across lafayette park from the white house going to the white house to picket. so in the best sense you have a contingent of women leaving, crossing the street to call upon the president. and it is as it was in armies a call that -- they're the colors. you're rallying around your colors. it's a call to battle. other banners that would have been used in parades, at rallies, and in picketing include "standing together women shall take their lives into their own keeping." actually this is from the exhibit on display now at the house, "in forward reaching into the past to honor the people who have come before you." drawing inspiration in this case from the battle hymn of the republic "as he died to make man

holy let us die to make men free." and this banner was also used at the memorial tribute to inez mullholland in 1917, the martyr of the suffrage movement. inspiring thoughts, "naught can ye win but by faith and daring." this is a lyric from a 1911 suffrage song called "the march of the women." it's a british suffrage song. i believe it shows a little bit of lucy burns and alice paul's some of the other suffragist's experience in the other suffrage movement where they brought back some of the tactics of parade of march, of demonstration that were happening in the british suffrage movement. bear the banner proudly they have borne before. horizons call, enter and conquer. i love this one. "we hold a banner for a sword

till all oppression cease." this is from another long actually, a lyric made up by jailed suffragists. it was sung to the tune of "charlie is my darling" which i'm absolutely convinced i learned in elementary school. so if anyone remembers the melody. or pulling poetry in this kate walt whitman "without extinction is liberty, without retrograde equality." so inspiration is coming from a variety of areas. this is actually from an article in the suffragist itself. the young are at the gates and will take out basically the stodgy conservative forcers that will keep women from voting. arguments for women's suffrage. "working women need the vote" something about as basic as you can get. this is our cause. this is what we need.

failure is impossible. susan b. anthony's final conviction about suffrage. and of course the motto. "forward out of darkness, leave behind the night. forward out of error, forward into light." and the great demand. we demand an amendment to the constitution of the united states enfranchising women, the women of the country. and this is from the 1913 parade when the banner is very large and in a float. this is one of the versions that would have been used at rallies and hung in the sewall-belmont house. this is actually the smithsonian's copy or version of the banner that we acquired last year. all of these banners would have been used in a variety of public forums. and th

stirring sight. but as shocking as the sight of women with banners was when it first started, while not becoming normal it became an accepted spectacle. people enjoyed suffrage parades. you could go and see the suffrage parade. so it didn't have the same -- while it still generated publicity, it wasn't having quite the effect that it once had. so you have to scale up. so what do you do to scale up? it's not having an effect on the president who is still not endorsing the suffrage amendment. so you move to a little more active protest. and this is the women -- this is women suffragists protesting in chicago, a speech by the president in the election year of 1916. and their banners have moved, become a little more aggressive. and they're asking very deliberate questions. they're asking, "president

wilson, how long do you advise us to wait?" and outright opposition. "vote against wilson. he opposes women." it didn't have luck influencing the election. woodrow wilson did win re-election. but when a key tactic in your movement, this is alice paul's key tactic, is to hold the party in power responsible. this is the democratic president and the democratic-controlled congress. it is their fault that there is no suffrage amendment. they could put it through. if that's your audience, you have to get them to listen to you. to do that you have to escalate just a little bit more. in december of 1916, when woodrow wilson was speaking before the congress and he was speaking on the jones act which would give citizenship to puerto

ricans, suffragists unfurled over the balcony of the capitol a banner asking when women would have the vote. in december that later that december they had a memorial for inez mullholland filled with banners. and a deputation went to the president to give them their new resolutions for suffrage. at this point, the problem with escalating your tactics to try to get the attention of the president is you can also annoy him. and president wilson had had enough. and he said he would meet with no more deputations. do not send them to me. well, if you can't meet with the president you're going to have to do something else. so in january, pickets, the silent sentinels, went to the white house. and they stood in front of the white house every day with the tricolor and with a varying combination of topical banners.

alice paul likened it to having a creditor stand outside your door demanding payment. eventually if you wanted to get rid of him, you were going to have to pay your debt or at least deal with him in some way. and this, alice paul was going to stand there until wilson gave her what she wanted to make her go away. now, the pickets began with the signs. and i've lost my -- the pickets began with the signs. "mr. president, how long must women wait for liberty and what will you do for women's suffrage." these became two of the core banners. these show up again and again and again and again. but other banners are sprinkled in with them, asking questions, making points. banners and pickets are an

because they do put the women out front. there's no escaping them. they are standing in front of the white house. they're as blatant as you can but they're also silent. they're not speaking. their position is on a piece of cloth. they're not -- it gives them a little bit of a barrier between the public and themselves, between the thought and themselves, so that women drew great response for their dignity, their silence, their stoicism and the way in which they comported themselves in this situation. and the admiration came from the press and from the public. they actually became a tourist attraction. people would come to washington, and when they were here they would look to see the suffragists.

and there were "what will you do for women's suffrage." one of the still existing banners. and this is college day on the picket line. there were theme days. you have to do something to keep this different and moving and lively. so there were actually theme days on the picket line. there was college day. they celebrated anniversaries like susan b. anthony's birthday were marked with banners, with quotes from susan b. anthony. lincoln's birthday was marked. and they could put together different combinations of banners. but still they weren't gaining the attention of the president. he treated them with courtesy as he went by them, but he did not speak and he was dismissive of what they were doing. so they escalated again. war of course was declared in april of 1917. and that put a slightly

different tone on things. and it's still a question that we ask, can you protest? can you picket? can you act? can you question the government in a time when the country is at war? and that's a question that has been asked from the start. in america it was asked during the civil war, when suffragists willingly put aside the push for suffrage to concentrate on winning the civil war and freeing the slaves. alice paul did not have that intention. susan b. anthony, for that matter, had not had that so they come out with a new set of banners. and they're pushing a little stronger now. if we're fighting a war to win democracy and to free europe why are we not doing it here. and they begin to use mr. wilson's words against him. "we shall fight for the things which we have always carried nearest our hearts for democracy." woodrow wilson, april 2nd, 1917. "mr. wilson, if you will free europe why will you not free

women in the united states?" when still no attention comes, the russians have now given women the vote. when the russian envoys come to the united states to meet with the president to discuss war tactics, they come up with a special sign of their own. in a way these are like the rapid response of the time. the situation is coming up you can make a banner that will react to that particular situation and build upon it. it's sort of -- my colleague likes to call them the sound bytes of the pre-media world. and it's amazing how long. if you notice the text on banners is getting longer. they start to become actual conversations, questions and points, not just something pretty, not just a little thought for you to come away with. now they're standing still in front of the white house. this is something that you can

read and think about. and it's not going to go anywhere. it's not a thought to just prompt you. it's something for you to contemplate. and for foreign visitors to now read. the russian envoy -- banner to the russian envoys questions the president, the president's intentions and the president's the russian envoy banner was not popular in the least. it was actually -- as soon as the dignitaries had passed the public -- members of the public, men from the public accosted the suffragists, took the banner and ripped it apart. now empty poles become a part o. but they also have backup plans. so new banners come out. at the house, conveniently across the street, more banners come out. res the next day. they are also torn.th t public when they don't like the

banner will the mob take the banner. they will. but the women gain praise for their -- again, their amazing stoicism, amazing dignity. they don't fight but they tain n does not let the colors drop. you protect it with your life. and these women protect these banners.n yorun out of banners, however, they've ripped up your final russian envoy banner, public thought, well, they're done. they have to go away now. no, from across the street came the backup banner. "democracy should begin at home." so they had a nice instinct for taking a situation that was happening. you object to what we're saying, you're going to try to silence what you're saying. isn't that interesting? shouldn't democracy begin at home?

so they respond not only to the president but to the public. a few weeks later, our envoy to russia comes back, and they have a list for him. you've been in russia. these women can vote. why can't this happen here? look at what is happening to us. please do something about the situation. and this is actually another allender cartoon. and the caption is, "making the russian envoys feel at home." [ laughter ] you can see the male mob swarming in against the suffragist. although it should be said there were also female government workers who on breaks came and took banners on their own. crowds now began to form around the suffragists. not always friendly, frequently threatening, not always violent.

but not friendly crowds. well, this hasn't worked. mr. wilson is still not responding. so where do you go after this? well, you escalate once again. this is the banner that pretty much did it for the suffragists. after the russian envoy banner, actually they were told that arrests would be made. and arrests were started that june. women were taken into custody for obstructing traffic. they were warned in advance that they would be arrested. and alice paul's response was a question why picketing was illegal today if it wasn't illegal yesterday. what was it that suddenly made a difference? and we all know that difference was the tone of the banners. the difference was the rhetoric of the banners. obstructing traffic is a dodge. but it worked and they brought them in. now, the first people were released with no sentence, with light sentences. but the banners did escalate the sentences. and one judge did say he sentenced women to 30 days in

prison and said he was giving them 30 days because the banner that they had was mild. if they had had an objectionable banner it would have been a longer sentence. the party's response was, you have no right to edit what we say any more than an article -- than an editorial in the "washington post." you can dislike our words but you can't censor our words. the kaiser wilson banner points out in a stronger way that president is a hypocrite, he has sympathy for the germans, he is working for democracy in europe. 20 million american women are not self-governed. and pulling from the bible, "take the beam out of your own eye." do you see the hypocrisy that you are creating? this is scrap of the banner.